


Presents

by Azile_Teacup



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas, Fluff, Holidays, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 08:02:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2843927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azile_Teacup/pseuds/Azile_Teacup
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>unconventional-angel on Tumblr wrote a list of holiday au ideas, and I wrote one :) </p><p>Merlin and Arthur, wrapping presents.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Presents

Arthur Pendragon is a high powered, rich, well dressed, important, man. He has offices in the Shard, his is at the top, he has a huge window that lets him see across all of London. He runs a business, sits on the boards of three charities, invests his own money, looks after his own inheritance. He’s an important man. He stares at Merlin. 

“Sorry, sir. It’s just, you’re so fastidious and kind of obsessive and I just thought… I mean, it’s a good thing, though. All that. Fastidious and obsessive and weird. I hadn’t mentioned weird, had I?” Merlin says, babbling. 

Arthur stares harder, steepling his fingers the way his father used to. When his father did it, the gesture came with an expression that used to make Arthur feel his bladder weakening and he’d do anything, anything to make that go away. He tries to imitate that look, but Merlin just grins and cocks his head to one side. 

“It’s for my Mum, Arthur,” he says, holding out the box. 

It’s square, and Arthur will admit to himself that he is good at such things and he can see how he’d do it, and Merlin has taste, even if he is awful at most things. Arthur finds himself actually considering it. He gets up and goes to the window. 

“No, Merlin. We’ve got to get-“

“Yeah, I know, the Johnson case. It’ll get done, yeah? Gwaine’s on it, he’s good.”

“Merlin.”

“Yes, sir. I’m going. I’ll just… leave this here. Just in case. You know.”

Merlin slides the box onto the desk and slips out of the office, drawing the blinds so Arthur’s shielded from the office. Arthur sighs and rolls his eyes and sighs again, but then he gives in. He goes and picks up the box and wrapping paper and peeks inside. After all, if he’s wrapping it he has a right to assuage his curiosity. It’s a set of espresso mugs. Very nice espresso mugs. Arthur sighs again and pulls open his bottom draw, removing the bag of very expensive coffee he had been meaning to give to Leon. He looks at it, then sets about wrapping everything up. He even makes a gift tag with a cartoon picture of a reindeer. 

**

“Oh my god, did you draw this?” Merlin asks, later, waving his chopsticks around and getting noodles perilously close to the gift. 

Arthur saves it and puts it away in his draw, glaring over his own Chinese. Merlin shrugs and grins at him. 

“I might have,” Arthur admits, picking up a spring roll with his chopsticks and putting it in his mouth whole. 

“Cool. It’s awesome, thanks. I’m so crap at that kind of thing! Anyway, Gwaine dug up a whole ton of stuff we can use. I reckon we can get Mrs Johnson sole custody. Her husband has rather deviant habits.”

“What kind of deviant habits?” Arthur asks, wary. 

“Nothing that’ll upset you, don’t worry. Things that er on the side of illegal and very unpleasant. That BDSM club Leon was telling you about? Mr Johnson uses it.”

Arthur glowers at his noodles. BDSM clubs should not involve coercing people into being submissive. One should not use a whip on a man who has not chosen to give his body in that way. One should not get into a situation where respect and safety are not taken into account. 

“Mr Johnson also has a habit of smoking weed regularly,” Merlin goes on, reading from a notebook covered in what Arthur recognises as Gwaine’s messy scrawl, “um, the times he told Mrs Johnson he was taking the kids swimming he actually took them to his girlfriend’s house, has managed to miss three appointments with them due to ‘illness’ that actually involved rather violent hangovers- Gwaine’s wording, that: ‘rather violent hangovers’.”

Arthur grunts and makes a few notes in the margin of the Johnson file. 

“If we can settle out of court it’ll be great, but who’ll you use, if we can’t?” Merlin asks. 

“Mithian’s a barrister, now. She’s done a lot of family law, she could do a good job on this and is happy for us to throw her work. We need to work on making new ties, now that we’ve finally got rid of Aredian. Let’s not talk shop, Merlin. I like the cups you got your Mum. I threw a bag of coffee in for you.”

“You shouldn’t.”

“It was cheap, I bought it for the office anyway. I’ll get the money out of expenses or something. Unless you want to give me a couple of quid for it to soothe whatever thing I just tripped over by being nice.”

“Being a presumptive arse, you mean. Don’t feed me that ‘cheap’ line, either. I know the kind of coffee you drink and I know what you consider cheap really isn’t, anyway. But, thank you. Mum’ll love it. I’ll tell her it’s from you, though. Or from… maybe it could be from… well, I suppose… from both of us.”

Arthur watches Merlin. Merlin looks stubbornly into his rice and stirfry and refuses to even glance up, a bright flush spreading and deepening up his neck, his ears, over his cheeks and nose. Arthur’s lips twitch and he laughs, softly. 

“You are lovely, sometimes, Merlin,” he says, reaching out to touch the hot cheek, pressing his thumb into Merlin’s skin and leaving a whitish mark for a moment, “really lovely.”

Merlin’s blush gets worse. 

“Honestly, anyone would think I never compliment you, Bones. I would like it if the present was from both of us, I like the sound of your mother and if you’ve told her half as much about me as you’ve told me about her, she probably won’t be averse to that.”

“I may have told her some things,” Merlin says, grudgingly, finally meeting Arthur’s eyes. 

“Good. From both of us, then,” Arthur says. 

He finishes his dinner before pulling out the package and adding his name to the tag Merlin wrote.


End file.
